Max Stirner and the Jewish Question

The “Jewish Question,” as a specific topic, was first taken up after the French Revolution of 1789, and designated as “la question juive.” As with every question, it implies a problem, and a problem asks for a solution. Needless to say, in the case of this question, a “final solution” was proposed and acted upon by the Nazis.

It seems agreed among scholars like Lucy Davidowicz¹ that this question first appeared in Germany as the title of an 1843 essay by Bruno Bauer, Die Judenfrage [The Jewish Question]. As it happened, at that same time, Bruno Bauer had found a close friend in Max Stirner, and they remained friends until Stirner’s death. They both experienced and contributed to the intellectual ferment of the vormärz, the period shortly before the German revolution of March 1848. This being the case, it seems that what Stirner had to say about Bauer’s Judenfrage would be of interest, as well as what Stirner himself held in regard to the question. Perhaps, because of his friendship with Bauer, there has been a natural tendency to simply dismiss Stirner’s views as being in accord with such vormärz radicals and antisemites as Ludwig Feuerbach, Arnold Ruge, Georg F. Daumer, and Mikhail Bakunin.² This is not the case.

Shortly after the death of Hegel in 1831, his philosophy—as if in accord with his own logic—found itself sundered into two antithetical schools, the “Young” and the “Old.” The first school comprised his more politically active young followers who were convinced that in Hegel one could find the rationale for revolution, for a “praxis” that would overthrow the reactionary regimes of both Evangelical Lutheranism and Prussian Monarchy. The March revolutions of 1848 would put their theories to the test. On the other side of Hegelianism were the conservative “Old” Hegelians, who held the opposite view. Most were established academics who seemed secure in their governmental positions and were not about to see in Hegel’s doctrines anything other than a philosophical bulwark for the given order of Church and State.

The “Young Hegelian” school suddenly came into being in 1835 with a brilliant theological study, The Life of Jesus Critically Examined [Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet]. It was written by a young and little-known theologian, David Friedrich Strauss, who, candidly, and to the shocked embarrassment of the “Old Hegelians,” declared that his work was inspired by Hegel’s philosophy. His reduction of the miracles related to the life of Jesus into a collection of mythic tales based upon Old Testament expectations simply destroyed the claim that Hegelianism and orthodox evangelical doctrine were compatible. As the Prussian Monarchy was supportive of, and supported by, the Orthodox Church, Strauss’ work was even more disturbing than might be expected from a biblical study. Strauss’ work had clearly confirmed the dire prediction of Berlin’s leading Pietist, Ernest Hengstenberg:

Hegelian philosophy will in the near future develop into a much more diabolical force than the declining rationalism. It is our holy duty to watch out and to attack immediately³

Alarmed, the Old Hegelians, such as Karl Göschel and Georg Gabler, hurriedly looked about for someone to rebut Strauss’ contentions. They decided to designate a young and talented theology Professor, Bruno Bauer. Their decision proved to be a disaster. Bauer not only failed to create a credible refutation of Strauss, but also soon turned into an atheist himself, with his own theories as to the life of Jesus—it was a fiction. Within a few years, Bauer was finally deprived of his teaching certification, and by 1842 had become the hero and de facto leader of Berlin’s Young Hegelians. Max Stirner was a memberw a close and life-long friend of Bauer. He also met and became the “duzbrüder” of young Frederick Engels.⁴

Although they never met, Karl Marx and Stirner had both known Bruno Bauer. Marx had first been Bauer’s student, and then became his friend. Together they had studied the Book of Isaiah, and planned a “Journal of Atheism.” In October 1842, Marx left for Cologne, just...